Two Worlds Colliding
by Winchester's Wench
Summary: Logan takes a friend on a trip during her vacation to help her unwind. Discoveries are made. Then all hell breaks loose...and the Wolverine goes hunting. AU. Logan/OFC
1. Prologue

**Author's Notes: **

**Disclaimer: Logan and Wolverine aren't mine. Damn. Rhiannon and her mother, however...came out of my demented little mind.**

**Feedback: would be lovely! Flames will be met with the business end of Mr. Howlett's shiny claws.**

**AN: I had the general idea for this original character for some time, but only recently got her fleshed out enough to really start writing. And I have to say I have been inspired by lachlanrose's work (Shine Against Me in particular) as well as dr_girlfriend's The Taming. If you have not read any of those, seriously...go read. NOW. *shoos you over to read Shine Against Me and The Taming*. This is AU...Jean, Scott and Charles are NOT dead... nope, no way no how... not listening to any of those lies. *lalalalalaICan'tHearYou* Timeline-wise, except for the deaths that are not deaths...probably post X3, although issues have cropped up for me after watching DoFP. Those will likely be dealt with in a second piece or sequel of some kind. There are plot bunnies knocking at my door to help with that, thankfully!**

p class="MsoNormal"emNineteen year old Rhiannon Evans sat in the hollow space beneath the stairs, quietly watching as Logan returned from one of his many solo missions he'd been sent on by the Professor. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him move, the combination of animalistic grace and devil-may-care attitude a heady draught. Footsteps directly over her head caused Logan's head to snap up and to the right. Rhiannon sighed. She didn't need psychic abilities to know her Aunt Jean was the one coming down the stairs. At that moment, she wished she had Kitty's phasing ability so she could leave her hiding place without Logan seeing her. Rhi knew Jean knew she was there; kind of hard to hide from a psychic, particularly one as powerful as her Aunt. She wished that, just for one moment, Logan would look at her the way he looked at Jean. /em/p


	2. Vacations Are Supposed To Be Fun

Rhiannon sat in the hollow space beneath the stairs, a favorite hiding spot of hers, quietly watching as Logan returned from one of his rather infrequent wanderings. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him move, the combination of animalistic grace and devil-may-care attitude a heady and very welcome draught, no matter that she was a thirty-five year old FBI agent now. Footsteps directly over her head sounded, and Logan's head snapped up. Rhiannon sighed. She _still_ didn't need psychic abilities or even her FBI profiler's training to know her Aunt Jean was the one coming down the stairs. At that moment, she once again wished she had Kitty's phasing ability so she could leave her hiding place without Logan seeing her. Not that it would really do any good, given Logan's feral senses. Rhi knew Jean knew she was there; kind of hard to hide from a psychic, particularly one as powerful as her Aunt. She also figured Logan knew she was there too. She lost count of how many times she'd sat in this very spot, waiting and watching for Logan to come home, thinking many of these very same thoughts. _Rhi_? Jean called to her telepathically. Sixteen years changed nothing. Outside these walls, she was a member of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, an elite law enforcement team. Inside the mansion, she always felt as though she were still a teenager. _Except_ with Logan. _Never_ with Logan.

Overhead, Jean called out to Logan. "Logan, I can't find Rhiannon anywhere. I hesitate to track her psychically, because she's been upset lately. She could just be off on her own, coping with whatever it is in her own way. And I don't want to bother the Professor just yet."

"But you're worried," Logan replied, smiling at her. "I'll find her, Jean." He sniffed the air pointedly.

"Thank you, Logan," Jean said, then turned around and went back upstairs. As soon as Jean was gone, Logan strode to Rhi's hiding spot. "She's gone. You can come out now," he said just before he came into sight. "What if I don't want to?" she asked morosely.

"Then move over, Princess Witch, and I'll sit with you," Logan said, dropping to the floor to do just that. Once she made room for him, the feral mutant put his right arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side. "Work getting to you that bad? You've been moping for the last two days. You're home on vacation. Aren't vacations supposed to be fun?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess, but I'm not in the mood for fun right now," she replied. "Logan, why do you call me that?"

"What?" he asked, stroking her hair with his hand in an attempt to get her to relax.

"Princess Witch. Odd sounding nickname, isn't it?"

Logan snorted. "Not for someone named Rhiannon it isn't," he replied. "_She is like a cat in the dark and then she is the darkness_," Logan sang softly. "Just don't marry some guy named Pwyll," he muttered with a growl.

Rhiannon sat bolt upright, smacking her head on the underside of the stairs. "Ow. You know the legend of Rhiannon?"

"Yeah. And I like the song, too. But if you ever tell anyone…" Logan glowered at her as he hauled her out of the small space, intent on looking at her head.

"Yeah yeah…I get it. You and your little dog too." She pantomimed zipping her lips. Logan inspected the top of her head, grinning to himself when he heard her heart rate increase at his touch. He kissed the spot she'd hit, his grin widening even more at the sound of her heart.

He grabbed her hand. "Come on. We're getting out of here. You need to quit moping. Vacations are supposed to be fun, and you need some fun to balance out the gruesome stuff you see at work. Go upstairs and pack a bag. Casual stuff. We leave in an hour."

She headed up the stairs, but stopped halfway. "Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise," he told her. "Oh, and you had better tell someone that you're with me. Jean's already worried about you."

Rhiannon resumed her course up the stairs and to her room, smiling like an idiot the whole way. In her room, she grabbed the largest backpack she owned and threw in two pair of jeans, two sets of underwear, two t-shirts, two flannel shirts, two sets of pajamas, a pair of sneakers, and her toothbrush and toothpaste. In the outside pocket, she stuffed her point-and-shoot digital camera and a few memory cards, her phone and the chargers for both devices. She wasn't going to be out of communication in case something happened that Logan couldn't handle. She couldn't imagine what might happen that Logan wouldn't be able to deal with, but at least if she had her phone, she could call her Uncle Charles and the other X-Men for help if she had to.

Hefting the bag onto her shoulder, she snagged her favorite leather jacket off the hook on the back of the door. It was a lot like the jacket Logan usually wore except black where Logan's was brown and had red stripes where Logan's sported tan ones. Not being sure of where Logan was taking her, she figured it was a safe bet bringing a jacket. Before she closed the door, she took one last look around her room to make sure she didn't need anything else. Although knowing Logan as she did, she was fairly certain their transportation would be his motorcycle, and you couldn't take much on the back of a Harley. At the last minute, she decided to take her backup weapon, the one she usually kept on her at all times. A Colt 1911 A1 nickel-plated .45 caliber handgun, it was a beauty. She shoved a couple boxes of the ammo and a shoulder holster for it in the bottom of the backpack. Rhiannon thought it didn't hurt to have it along in case they ran into any mutant-hating humans while they were out and about.

She was startled out of her last minute ruminations by the cheerful voices of three of her friends, the mutants Rogue, Jubilee and Kitty. "You can't leave…you just got here," Jubilee complained. "Yeah, we haven't had a girls' night yet," Rogue chimed in. "If you leave, I'll just come get you and drag you back," Kitty threatened.

She laughed. "Don't worry. We'll get our girls' night. I just need an attitude adjustment first is all."

Loud footsteps behind the women made Rhiannon turn around. Logan came bounding up the stairs two at a time. He cocked an eyebrow at her. "You ready, Princess?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Can we swing by the office first though? Mom should still be here. I want to let her know you're kidnapping me," she said.

"Some attitude adjustment," Jubilee snorted.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Rogue grinned as Logan took Rhiannon by the arm and led her down the stairs.

Rhiannon paused and glanced back up at her friend. "Well, damn, Marie, given your mutation, I guess that means I'm screwed," she replied with a wink, and all four women burst into laughter.

Logan grabbed her arm and hustled her down the stairs. "I better get you out of here before those three make any more jokes at my expense."

"Oh come on, Logan. I'm being whisked away by the school's resident motorcycle riding, cigar smoking, leather jacket wearing handsome bad boy for who knows how long. What do you expect them to say?" she retorted, rolling her eyes.

He smirked at her. "You think I'm handsome, do you?"

She snatched her arm out of his grasp and stalked down the hall to the administrative section of the mansion, where her mother worked as clerical administrator. She let herself into her mother's office, grumbling under her breath as she shut the door.

Her mother was busily typing away, probably some science class notes of some sort for one of the Professor's physics classes, or perhaps dictations for Dr. McCoy. Sorcha Evans didn't even look up from her computer screen. "How is Logan today?"

Her daughter laughed. "Exasperating, as always. I just dropped by to tell you Logan is dragging me kicking and screaming out of the funk I've been in. He's taking me on a trip. He says vacations are supposed to be fun."

"Do you have any idea where you're going?" Sorcha asked her daughter.

"Not yet, he says it's a surprise. But," she brandished her backpack, "he said pack casual, and knowing him, we're leaving on his Harley, so I packed light." Dropping the backpack to the floor, she ran over to her mother's desk and hugged the older woman tightly. "I am taking my phone, so I can call if I need to. When we get to where we're going I'll let you know."

Her mother returned the embrace, saying as she did, "You should let Charles know you're leaving. He was looking forward to seeing you while you were here."

"If you're sure. I don't want to bother the Professor. And I don't think we'll be gone that long."

Giving her daughter a look, Sorcha hit the intercom on her desk. "Yes?" Charles Xavier's strong authoritative voice replied. "Charles, Rhiannon is leaving on a short trip with Logan and wanted to speak to you before they head out."

Instead of replying verbally, Charles spoke to Rhiannon telepathically. _I'd enjoy that very much, Rhiannon._

She let herself into the Professor's office and he wheeled himself out from behind his desk to greet her. He held his arms out and she walked over to him, knelt in front of his chair and relaxed into his embrace. "Thanks, Uncle Charles. I needed that."

"You know I don't mean to pry, but some of your thoughts about work recently are rather hard to ignore. Perhaps this outing with Logan will chase some of those demons away," Charles said thoughtfully.

"And if that doesn't work, I'll do it myself, the old fashioned way," Logan said from where he stood in the doorway behind Rhiannon, the telltale sound of Logan's adamantium claws unsheathing sounding quite loud in Charles's normally peaceful office. Charles didn't say anything, but as his two students turned to go, Rhiannon heard in her mind, _Logan cares very much for you, you know._

_It goes beyond caring for me, Uncle Charles. Far beyond._

_Perhaps Logan needs this trip as much as you do._

Logan escorted Rhiannon outside, where his Harley Davidson motorcycle stood waiting, the black leather shining and the silver metal gleaming, as if Logan had just finished polishing it. He gestured theatrically. "Your chariot awaits, Princess."

She handed her bag to him and waited while he stowed it in one of the saddlebags. He tossed her a motorcycle helmet. "Put this on. I heal fast. You don't." She sensibly did as he asked. Then after he sat down and started the classic beast's engine, she sat down behind him, reveling in the opportunity to put her arms around him. "You ready?" he yelled at her over the roar of the engine. "Let's ride!" she replied happily in a normal tone of voice, knowing Logan would hear her. They rumbled down the driveway and out of the mansion's gates without a care in the world.


	3. Arrival at the Cottage

p class="MsoNormal"After only twenty minutes or so of circuitous riding that almost made Rhiannon dizzy from all the turns they'd had to make, Logan turned again off the main road onto another road, and she saw an ornate wooden sign that proclaimed they were entering a state park. She shook her head in wonder, thinking that she was a moron. She'd all but grown up in the Westchester area, and had forgotten that this beautiful park was so close to the school. She vaguely recalled coming here on a field trip for one of her classes in ninth grade, but that was the only memory she had of the place. /p  
p class="MsoNormal"Logan soon pulled up in front of a small cottage and cut the engine. "Here we are."/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Rhiannon released her hold on Logan with some reluctance. But as soon as she walked around to the rear of the cottage and saw the view they would be graced with, she forgot her minor melancholy over not being able to touch Logan for hours on end. She heard a door slam behind her and Logan's footsteps. "Beautiful, isn't it?" he asked her./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yeah," she replied, gazing out at the crystal blue lake wistfully./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal""I put your bag inside," Logan told her, resting his hands on her shoulders./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal""What about your stuff? Didn't you bring anything?" she asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"He chuckled. "I already brought down a few things. I had been planning to come here for a while."/p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"Rhiannon turned around, somehow managing not to dislodge Logan's hands from her shoulders. "Oh, Logan, I don't want to disturb emyour/em vacation," she said, frowning./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"He gazed down at her thoughtfully. "Now you listen here, missy. You aren't disturbing anything. I brought you here because you need to relax and this is a great place for that. Besides," he said, giving her one of his rare smiles, "I like spending time with you."/p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"The Professor's earlier words echoed in her mind. emLogan cares for you very much, you know./em The thing was, emhow/em did he care? Did he think of her as a kid sister, like he did Rogue, Jubilee and Kitty? Or was it something else? She wished now that she'd had the time to ask the Professor what he'd meant by that, but Logan had swept her out of the office before she'd had the chance. She cocked an eyebrow at him. "Well then, what can we do, since you know this place better than me?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal""Well, there are hiking trails, we can fish, take a rowboat out on the lake. I brought lots of marshmallows too…we can build a campfire later tonight, if you want," Logan replied./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"She grinned. "And tell spooky stories?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"Logan shook his head at her. "Don't you get enough of that with what you do for a living?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal""I'll take a ghost or a spooky critter any day over some of the monsters my unit hunts," she said, then shoved him in the chest. "I thought you said you wanted me to have fun! Why are you bringing up the BAU?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal""I talked to the Professor myself before we left. He said your last few cases have really bothered you, and he suggested I listen if you wanted to talk about it, but not to empush/em you to talk. You know I'm always there for you, Princess, so if you want to get a few things off your chest, you let me know," he said, pulling her close for a hug./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"Rhiannon savored being this close to Logan. She loved him so much, but she was terrified. The Professor had hinted that perhaps Logan had similar feelings for her, but what if he was wrong? She hoped that spending this time with him might shed some light on this issue for her. Mentally crossing her fingers, she stepped out of his arms and said brightly, "Okay, hotshot, let's go fish for our supper and then have those marshmallows. What do you say?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"Logan grinned devilishly at her. "Sure. We can play Twenty Questions too."/p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"She groaned. "Really, Logan? Do I look like a kid to you?" /p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"He let his gaze travel slowly over her petite frame, then his warm hazel eyes locked with her bright green ones. "Oh, trust me, this is a special version." He leaned into her personal space once more, mouth next to her ear. "I haven't thought of you as a 'kid' in fifteen years," he growled before turning around and heading inside. /p 


End file.
